[Cellar Review] Goose Island Night Stalker (Vintage 2011)

Brewed By: Goose Island Beer Company (pre-InBev) in Chicago, Illinois

Purchased: 22oz bottle from a Binny's in Chicago, IL; 2011 (bottled on 02/06/11)

Style/ABV: American-style Russian Imperial Stout, 11.7% 

Reported IBUs: 60

Doesn't 2011 seem so....long ago? About Goose Island:

Goose Island is a Chicago-based brewery that began as a brewpub on Clybourn, which opened on May 1988. The actual brewery opened on 1995, and is located on the Southwest side of Chicago. The second brewpub, located in Wrigleyville by the Chicago Cubs, was opened in 1999. On March 28, 2011, Goose Island sold 58% of the brewery to Anheuser-Busch. The remaining 42% of the brewery is supposed to be acquired by A-B InBev in the future, and there has been much discussion about the brewery's takeover. On November 16th, founder and CEO, John Hall, announced he would be leaving Goose Island. On January 1st, 2013, Anheuser-Busch "veteran" Andy Goeler will take over Goose Island. Additionally, around the same time as John Hall's departure, resident barrel-program leader John Laffler also announced his departure from Goose Island. There have been many changes regarding Goose Island...so we will see what the future has in store for Goose Island. 

A year ago, I had an opportunity to try the 2012 batch of Night Stalker, and it was "okay." It tasted bold and complex, but it also tasted like soy sauce, and like a militia of Simcoe Hops hurling pissing cats at your mouth. I laid a bottle of the 2012 Night Stalker down, hopefully to revisit someday in the future.

02/06/11

Tonight's review is the result of me having a bottle of the 2011 Night Stalker laying around. I also got to try this beer fresh, back in 2011, and my recollection was that it was much better than the 2012 batch. 

The Night Stalker is a giant Imperial Stout from the InBev shills that brought you such beers as Beaber Country Stout and Honkers Ale. It is created by taking the Cook County Stout (BCS base) and throwing a fuck-load of Simcoe hops into the fermenter. The end result is 60 IBUs and 11.7% of roasty, chocolaty, hop-driven goodness. The InBev-Goose Island website says, "Enjoy within 180 days," but fuck that. F to the T, bitches.

My 2011 Vintage bottle says, "This hoppy Imperial Stout will continue to develop in the bottle for up to 5 years from the bottled on date, cheers! | Greg Hall, Brewmaster." I miss Greg Hall. I guess it's a conflict of interest when he is pissing in glasses at the pub and calling it Budweiser. Whoops. Anyway, you know this beer, and you know the vintage. Let's see how this piece of history has held up over the past three years. 

Goose Island Night Stalker (Vintage 2011)

This 3-year old vintage pours into a pitch black, opaque body, kicking up the sexiest dark brown/mocha/bread-colored head. The head is fat and dense, I rounded up three fingers worth. The beer looks the same in bright light, and I'm impressed with the duration of the head (a finger will not die). There's also nice lacing and big alcohol legs. It looks awesome, like a hearty RIS should.

The aroma here is all sex and candy. The Simcoe cat piss extravaganza has mellowed into orange sherbet, pine, pine sap, maple syrup, and giant Twizzlers. I'm getting big Twizzler-anise-licorice, and there are some plums dancing around in here too, ala a hoppy Barleywine (Green Flash comes to mind). It's sugary. I'm also getting some meaty notes, raspberry puree, and hints of malt goodness. Unlike the fresh bottle of the 2012 Vintage, this 3-year old bottle does remind me of Oskar Blues' Ten FIDY. There are serious malts back-ending the hoppy sweetness. I'm also reminded of Evil Twins' Even More Jesus, and that beer is pop rock blow jobs. I'm getting nondescript roast, chocolate, and ashy, pillowy malts. 

Wow, I can't believe how hoppy this beer still is. I'm getting resinous hops, holy fuck. Like, there is resinous pine and candied citrus in the mix. The beer itself is full-bodied and rich, with velvety malts sugar coating the 3-year old hops with chocolate, brown sugars, molasses, light roast/ash, hints of coffee, and more roast on the back end. There is a ton of chocolate buried in the mix here, and this thing just keeps getting better as it warms up.

After all these years, this one retains a full body, which you sort of expect at 11.7%. What you don't expect is the wallop of hops that accompany the rich malts, sugars, and booze. Seriously, Goose Island, exactly how many fucking hops do you hop this with? I mean holy shit. I'm not complaining, but holy shit. This beer has awesome palate depth; huge, expansive duration; and moderate complexity for the style. This is just a joy to drink right now. Up front: swaths of rich, pillowy malts hug your tongue with roast, coffee, chocolate, woody character, brown sugar, molasses, HUGE mouthfeel; the mids roll into sweet hops, resinous pine, hop candies, citrus, plums, hints of Twizzler, and lingering cat-piss-Simcoe; the back end wraps up the beer on a sticky and boozy note, tying the intense malt sweetness to the hops and fading out with roast and other notes. This is good.

Om nom nom.

Rating: Above-Average (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

Holy shit, what an improvement three years makes. This gets a Strong Above-Average from me, and compared to the fresh bottle of the 2012 Night Stalker...this is like night and day. This is up there with the Ten FIDY and the Even More Jesus. If you are into that type of aggressive, hoppy Stout, look no further, friend. Look...I really like this. Again, I'm not a huge advocate of cellaring beers, but this one seems to work out well with some age on it. Put it in your cellar. Food pairings? Eh, I would sip on this, but that's just me.

Random Thought: While I plan to throw some newer beers into the mix, stay tuned for more random cellar reviews.